As driver of a 56,000-pound, three-axle solid waste management truck for the past 15 years, Jimenez is one of the knights in steel armor who daily save us from jousting with our own junk.

Barely noticed by most, that grinding growl of trash receptacles being heaved and dumped should be music to our ears. If not for drivers like Jimenez and their teams, we would have strolled out to our cars to face, collectively, 130,000 tons of garbage in 2006.

No sweat. And no dirty hands, either.

Hutson

"It's a clean job," Jimenez says with a smile. "I never touch the trash."

His uncle still works in a Texas city that has rear-loading trucks, where handlers pick up curbside trash cans and dump them into the hold.

"Trash can get out, or dogs can get into the cans. It's not as good," Jimenez said.

The hardest part is maneuvering the huge truck through the narrow alleys full of hazards.

"I need to look ahead of me to make sure I don't run into people backing out of their drives, and behind me at the truck's carriage," Jimenez says.

From this writer's vantage point in the passenger seat, it's like riding a behemoth through a china shop.

Jimenez

Like all drivers, Jimenez must dexterously wind between the trash bins on the left and the gas meters, like too-close guard rails, on the right. Meanwhile, he calculates the position of the truck in relation to the "can." At the push of a button, the carriage arms slide into the square handles on each side of the can, lift it above the hold as the door opens, then tilt and dump it into the massive packer body, which can hold seven tons of garbage.

Come on. This is automotive ballet mixed with WWF wrestling. And the curbs are merciless referees.

"I hit the curb once and a woman came out and cussed me," Jimenez recalls. The area he hit was city property, but the woman didn't know that.

Jimenez says people are usually very nice, coming out in summer to offer him water.

This talented machinist doesn't have to do this job; he chooses to. Every day. In a way, Jimenez volunteers to do a safe, effective job of keeping our community healthy.

Hats off to Rudy Jimenez. And all those like him.

TELL KATE HUTSON about a person in the area who has made an impact on others, kate.hutson@lubbockonline.com or 766-8702.